Garmin In-Car HUD Connects To Your iPhone Apps

Garmin has just announced a neat new HUD box that takes the map info from your iPhone and projects it up onto your car windshield. Named after the Paul Newman character in the movie of the same name[1], the HUD is designed to work with Garmin’s Navigon and Street Pilot apps, connecting to the host phone via Bluetooth.

The iPhone really has shaken everything up. Nikon has made clear that it’s considering non-camera devices that work with smartphones, and who would buy an in-car satnav these days when your iPhone does it all for you? Garmin has clearly started the move away from standalone hardware with the new HUD, which uses LEDs to project information up onto a plastic film on the inside of your windshield, or onto a small screen which connects to the device.

The device uses arrows to tell you the next move you’ll have to make, and offers up some basic info like speed and the time. It also work in conjunction with the spoken turn-by-turn instructions coming from the app.

The price of the HUD will be $130 when it ships “this summer,” plus the price of the apps.